Bouvier Bes Flandres Powerfully Built Dog Breed Belgium Origin

The Bouvier des Flandres Breeder in the area of Brussels, Belgium. Major Police forces throughout the world use and respect this breed for their loyalty and devotion to duty. Being very intelligent, they are easy to train. However, they need an owner who will not turn over the leadership role to the dog. Their demanding personality can make life miserable for the humans in the house, if allowed to assume the role of the master. When they are allowed to assume the role of the master, they can be very hard to retrain. Their original function in life was to round up the cattle and drive them to market. Often they use these same herding skills with small children who are placed in their very capable care.

Bouvier Bes Flandres

Bouvier Bes Flandres In the late 19th century, a program of selective breeding that would eventually produce the dog we know today as the Bouvier was begun in the farming regions of Belgium. Documentation of his ancestry is cloudy, but his beginnings are loosely attributed to a type of sheepdog (berger), the Dutch Griffon, and the Barbet, or waterdog. By 1910, specific interest in this tousle-coated herder and protector grew as far as the cattle areas near the river Lye valley. At that time, Bouviers were being used as drovers, draft animals, activators for churning mills, and farm and family protectors.

Common characteristics were bobtails, cropped ears, harsh tousled coats, and perfect instincts for guarding his flock, home, and family. In those days, tails and ears were routinely shortened because they were easy
targets for farm predators.

Bouvier Bes Flandres

For the Bouvier des Flandres I recommend foods that are a blend of beef meal and fish with brown rice and wheat. This food also should have a very high vegetable oil content from wheat germ oil or linseed oil.
However, I feel you should avoid feeding a Bouvier des Flandres yellow corn, soy (including soy oil coat conditioners), beet pulp, or horse meat.  Native food supplies from the environment near Brussels, Belgium,

would have included beef cattle, fish, a form of brown rice, and flax.
The first "Standard" for the Bouvier des Flandres was developed in 1912. Then during World War I (and later during World War II), as the home territory of the Bouvier des Flandres became a battlefield, their numbers were drastically cut almost to extinction! Those who stayed, worked as ambulance litter pullers and military tracking aides. Only a few escaped to other countries. Those who survived, some taken to France and the Netherlands, became part of discriminating breeding programs for a particular type. The Club National Belge du Bouvier des Flandres, formed in Ghent early in 1922, formulated specific qualities of type for future breeding.

BOUVIER DES FLANDRES DOG

The Bouvier des Flandres Dog came to America in the late 1920's and now extends throughout the United States and Canada. The legacy of the Bouvier has produced many admirable qualities in this breed. He is a square, powerfully built dog, rugged and formidable in appearance. His harsh double coat protects him in all types of weather; his keen sense of smell and watchful gaze make him a most suitable farm dog. He thrives on plenty of room to work and exercise, but he is not an outdoor dog: he must live with his loving people his "flock."

He is agile, alert, intelligent, with character, great spirit and fearlessness; yet, he is serene in disposition and
even in temperament. The average size of a Bouvier male is about 26" at the withers, 25" for a female, with an approximate weight span of 70 to 110 pounds. Coloring ranges from black to grey with a variety of colors in between, including fawn and salt-and-pepper.

Today, the Bouvier des Flandres acts as a family friend and protector, farm dog, shepherd, and guide dog for the blind and hearing impaired. His intelligence, sense of threat discrimination and keen scenting ability enables him to excel in police work, tracking and drug detection. Owning a Bouvier, like any dog, requires love, patience, training, a good bit of grooming, a willingness to exercise the dog and to pay for regular veterinary care, a desire to have a companion who will follow you around the house, keeping an eye on you, and a commitment to complete at least one set of good obedience classes.

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